☆ Event: Mirror Mix-Up

[moustre]

Event Log: November, Mirror Mix-Up

The 20th of Noveuer starts out innocuous. The Looking Glass House is quiet and still at this late hour, largely empty but for the apprentice Witch dusting the many mirrors on the walls in the middle of the night. When the bells chime for 3 am, though, a night of tidying turns into something... a little more hectic. He panics, initially, as things push through various mirrors to scatter across the floor, and then animals, scurrying about, unhappy with their current change in locations. He clings to his duster and waits apprehensively for more Mirrorbound to slip through, prepared to run and get Miss Nessie, but the minutes tick by, and none come. Eventually, he can't ignore the mess any longer, and flees to fetch someone higher up to deal with this nonsense.

I. Early Morning Message The initial hours after 3 am are a bit of a nightmare. Miss Nessie is unavailable, stuck in a long Parliament meeting with Mhairi that has continued into the early morning, and her assistant, given new duties lately due to her packed schedule, is sent to speak with her. It's a bit of a cluster, everything - they've never had something like this happen before! Then again, they'd never had people come through either, until the first group of Mirrorbound several months ago. She gets away long enough around 6 am to make a magical announcement to Mirrorbound only, her voice, at a casual speaking tone, carrying across the city enough to be heard anywhere. "Good morning, Mirrorbound! So sorry for disturbing you at this time of morning, dears, I am. It's just that we've had a bit of an incident in the Looking-Glass House last night! How strange, what I'm hearing, how bizarre. If you would all please report to the Looking-Glass House at your earliest convenience, we believe we may have some things of yours, we do. The sooner the better, as- well, some of the things come through the mirrors last night must be pets! They're terrorizing my poor staff. Now, I won't be the one to greet you, I'm afraid, I'm still quite wrapped up with Parliament, but I hope you'll all be kind to my Assistant Theodore and his Bonded, Sowilo. They'll be making sure everyone gets their things back. Theodore might be a bit buttoned-up, but he's a good lad! Bye for now, dears, I must away back to my meeting, but rest assured, we will be looking into today's unexpected surprise!" After it's been heard, the message cuts off - it's impossible to miss unless one is trying very hard to miss it. Miss Nessie's duties will keep her away during this event, but limited NPC interactions, IC or handwaved OOC, are available with her newly-minted assistant Theodore Rosethorne, and his Bonded Fae, Sowilo. In the future, anything requiring Nessie may also be brought to Theodore! The NPC Contact page will be updated in the next few days to reflect this change. There may be a slight delay on Theodore's responses, but all NPC interaction requests will be answered as soon as possible.

II. A Bit of a Mix-Up It's a red-headed Fae in shoe-lifts who arrives first, glamoured to look perfectly put together despite his long hair being up in a haphazard bun, having been dragged out of his bed to deal with a crisis this early in the morning. He immediately starts directing efforts, red dragonfly wings occasionally flicking with irritation as he reads things off a clipboard and directs this to be piled there and that pet to be corralled before it crashes into something or sets something on fire. The other Witches are a little apprehensive about his presence, but when one protests, he just says with a scowl, "Excuse you. I am Bonded to Miss Nessie's right hand man." The efforts to reunite incoming Mirrorbound with their possessions and pets are... well, an effort is made. Sowilo may just shove something into your arms and announce in an authoritative voice, "You look like you could use one of these." He hears no arguments that it doesn't belong to that person, brushing them off with a haughty, "Well, find the owner, then, make yourself useful, hm?" Before he flits on to the next Mirrorbound, the next item or creature, eager to get rid of everything cluttering up the Looking-Glass House. Fae. Sometimes they're just like that. While the Witches are bustling around trying to get everything sorted out (it's impossible to match things to mirrors, but an attempt is made anyway), it's easy enough to breeze past them and survey the goods on your own, but no one will be allowed to leave with more than one item or creature in their hands or pockets; Sowilo has a sharp eye, and attempted theft will result in an illusion being placed on the thief of being trapped in a maze with their worst nightmare. It lasts until the extra item is returned or will otherwise dissipate after three days. Those that can see through illusions naturally or through practice get a stickier punishment - literally, one of the Witches present will, when prompted by Sowilo, charm the thief with a glue-trap spell, which will cause them to stick to everything except what they're trying to steal - again, until the extra item is returned, or until three days have passed. There isn't much warning about the punishment for attempted theft. The rumors have it that Sowilo's family are descended from Unseelie, and he's... a pain in the behind, to put it lightly. As a reminder, all mixed-up items should eventually find their way back to their original owners unless explicitly plotted out otherwise!

III. Late Morning After a couple of hours of Sowilo's "management", Theodore Rosethorne finally arrives. One quick glance and the poor Witch already looks like he's going to faint. Miss Nessie's assistant is a young Witch who seems to hold himself as prim and proper as possible. Clothes neat and straight. The only thing that seems to be impossible to tame is the mess of curls on his head. He takes the clipboard from his Bonded, but seems at a bit of a loss. Mirrorbound arriving later in the morning are much more likely to get an item that actually belongs to them, though mix-ups may still happen. He gives the best smile he can offer before adjusting his glasses. Exasperated. "I'm quite sorry. Terribly so. If it isn't too much trouble, it would help us greatly if you could find the original owner. I only just escaped digging up documents from Miss Bell's desk..." Needless to say, the poor guy seems to have been thrown into the thick of it and already overwhelmed. Oh, and about Sowilo? "I apologize. He's...Well, he can be a lot when you first meet him." Or a lot in general. Sowilo is quite the character! For those having trouble finding the original owners of whatever they've been given through more conventional means such as word-of-mouth or the Watches, a quick spell is taught and passed out in slips of paper meant to be stuck to the item in question - it acts as a divining rod, pointing the item toward the owner and pulling the person holding it along for the ride. Careful! The charm has no mind for things like walls and doors and people in the way, and will always try to pull the holder in the shortest possible line to its owner. This isn't much help for pets, though, who have minds of their own, and, in some cases, just don't want to be corralled by strange and somewhat-frantic Witches or Monsters.

Welcome to November's event log! Regains arrive through the mirrors ICly on the morning of the 20th. Questions can be found HERE, and if you wish to interact with Theodore and Sowilo, our newest NPCs, comment HERE. You have the option of handwaving the IC interaction to OOCly ask what questions your character might have for them, for us to summarize an answer for, or you can request an IC thread. Simply specify in your comment's subject and we'll respond accordingly. As always, feel free to use this log or make your own!

Comments

[horkbajir]

Toby looks up from the two-foot-long dark shape she's ended up with. In her hands it seems pretty reasonably sized. "Steven. You seem excited."

She felt that flash of it a moment ago, and while she doesn't get just what has him worked up, she's willing enough to help.

"The box itself or simply its contents?" Toby's never interacted with a refrigerator, much less a freezer. She curls and uncurls her fingers, running through techniques in her head. Temperature control is one of the first spells she mastered, though she didn't extend her practice of it off into throwing fireballs or cones of ice or anything of the sort. "How cold do you want it? The freezing temperature of water?"

[starseedling]

"The stuff inside!" he says eagerly, like there isn't much time to explain. "It's Cookie Cats, Toby! They don't even make these anymore!"

Of course, Steven doesn't actually know what temperature ice cream is kept at, besides 'cold'. He considers it for a few hectic moments.

"Probably a bit colder than that - cold enough that you could keep snow on the ground." He gestures at the helplessly. "They've just been sitting out for a while now and I think they're going to melt..."

Then, he sees what she is holding.

"Whoa! You have a gun?"

[horkbajir]

"Okay," she says, still not understanding. Toby has the impression that this is a food, and she doesn't really get the appeal of frozen food aside from on very hot days. Her experience of it - tinctures of water with sap, ants, and interesting plant matter - wouldn't really be harmed by melting and being refrozen.

But it seems important to him, so she'll do her best.

"A Dracon beam that I believe my people captured. It does not fire lead pellets, but some form of energy." She considers for a moment and decides Steven will be disappointed if this is too much of a distraction and his ...cats melt. "I have only seen snow on mountaintops and during the summer here, but I think I can manage that. Let me hold it. You may hold this, but whatever you do, do not remove the safety and squeeze the trigger."

[starseedling]

"Ohhh wow..."

Steven will trade her the fridge for the Dracon beam, which is absolutely huge in his arms. He doesn't even know how to remove the safety so that's probably fine, but he does aim it at the floor, peering down its top like he's going to scope with it.

"Haha. Pew pew."

She is probably correct in worrying that he might get distracted.

[horkbajir]

Toby has little fear that he'll be able to get into trouble with the weapon. If he knew how to use it it would be a struggle to do so, this model really isn't made for smaller hands. Should the worst come to pass, she recognizes this as damaged and without the higher settings. Assuming no one's hit in the eye there would be pain but no damage.

So she should probably mention that. "Don't point it at anyone's face. And it makes more of a 'tseew' sound."

She turns the little freezer over, its cord dangling, and opens it up to feel the walls, which seem to be insulated, and the residual coolness inside. With a thoughtful rumble she closes it again and draws a lopsided blue-and-white ceramic button out of one of the pouches she's taken to wearing. This will do.

[starseedling]

"Oh, okay," he says, keeping it trained on the ground in front of him. It would be sort of cool to shoot this at some boulders or something. Maybe they can do that later. "Tseew tseew! Tseeeew!"

He might be overestimating how powerful it is.

He pauses, though, when she seems to be inspecting the fridge. He comes over to peer at it as well.

"Usually it makes cold inside with electricity, but there's nowhere to plug it in, here..." He contemplates it for a moment. "Man, did this thing come from the past? I destroyed a fridge like this years ago!"

[horkbajir]

"There you go," she says indulgently.

The theory isn't too unlike the warming tokens she's made in the past. Her first ones were oak galls, but at this point she thinks she'd eat the galls and go with ceramic, which has associations with heat and its lack. The glaze is excellent at transferring heat, which is why it initially feels cool to the touch.

Toby balances the button, made by one of her refugees, against the claw at the tip of one finger, and grimaces against the building chill but doesn't cancel her efforts or put it down yet. She wants to be sure to tune the area of effect.

"Hmm? I haven't made much study of electricity. It might need a specific strength and consistency of current." A fridge. Is that what it is? "Was there only ever one?"

[starseedling]

Steven is losing interest in the gun, and gaining interest in what Toby is doing with the button. He stands up his tip toes, trying to get a better look.

"Oh yeah... I think those are called watts, or something?" He considers. "I guess there was probably a lot of these little guys... everywhere they were selling Cookie Cats. But they stopped doing it a long time ago. So maybe it's not mine at all."

He squints.

"But then why would it be here...?"

[horkbajir]

An obliging Toby crouches down on her haunches. There's an invisible aura of cold around the button, getting larger and smaller as she adjusts it, with an equally invisible layer of increased heat pushed outside of it. Condensation beads on her claw and scales and ices over and it's unpleasant, but nothing she can't endure.

"Good question. Maybe there's just some association there. I think I recognize this particular Dracon beam, but I wouldn't consider it mine. We salvaged it on the raid when we saved Dref."